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Monday, March 16, 2015

Vatican City, 14 March 2015 (VIS) –
This morning in the Clementine Hall of the Vatican Apostolic Palace,
Pope Francis received in audience members of the “Seguimi”
(“Follow Me”) lay community, on the 50th anniversary of its
foundation. “The gesture, symbolic and intensely spiritual, of the
first members to depart from the Catacombs of St. Callixtus,
demonstrate this wish, that you have expressed in the statutory form
of your programme of life: 'Jesus Christ lives at the centre of
Seguimi'. This is beautiful. … I encourage you to live according to
this programme every day, with commitment; that is, to be decentred
from yourselves and to place your vital centre in the living Person
of Jesus. Yours is a form of evangelical life that is practised in a
context of laicism and liberty. A programme of Christian life for
laypeople, with clear and demanding objectives, an original way of
incarnating the Gospel, an effective way of walking the world”.

Francis encouraged them to “conserve
and develop this fraternal communion and exchange of gifts, aimed at
the human and Christian growth of all, along with creativity,
optimism, joy and the courage to go – when appropriate – against
the grain. Be vigilant in your spiritual path and help each other to
practice spiritual charity, which means defending yourselves against
individualistic selfishness in order to be true witnesses to the
Gospel”.

“As laypeople, you are immersed in
the world and are occupied within earthly situations to serve the
good of man. You are required to permeate with Christian values the
environments in which you work with your witness and word, meeting
people in their concrete situations, so that they have full dignity
and are reached by Christ's salvation”. The Pope concluded by
urging them to be “laypeople on the front line”, to “feel like
an active part of the Church's mission, to live your secularity
dedicating yourself to the situations typical of the earthly city:
the family, the professions, social life in its various expressions.
In this way you are able, as a leaven, to bring the spirit of the
Gospel into the folds of history with your witness of faith, hope and
charity”.